#the writers did their best trying to fit Shiro in so early

[rambling-entity]

S4 Voltron thoughts and spoilers

Just thoughts full of spoilers. Might not include only season 4 stuff either. How Shiro has been acting basically throughout the season kinda pissed me off. I mean it's one thing to pressure Keith into leading Voltron, it's another to not give him any training or advice in doing so. There's only so far natural leadership tendencies can get you. Plus there was the utter disregard for the advice given by Lance, who is now the right hand of Voltron. Them at least viewing the random pillars from a farther distance would have been an acceptable compromise. Hence why I love the theory Shiro is Kuron, a clone, because it fits this un-Shiro-like behaviour. Then there's Keith leaving Voltron. That hurt basically everyone, Keith most of all. I mean Voltron was his family when he never really had one before, and to feel so easily replaced cannot possibly have been easy. Plus (and yes I am a Klance shipper) but there was also so much bonding that happened between those two, and I'm sure that with how friendly and open Hunk is there had to have been some bonding there too. Allura may have noticed Keith leaving the most out of the group, and that brings another point of bonding. Keith is part Galra, so for Allura to have gotten past that and felt concern for Keith is a major point. She really grew this season, particularly when she is supported by Lance to basically fight Honerva (a 10 000 year old witch) and freaking WIN. As one of the last Alteans, she bears so much responsibility on her shoulders. Lance acknowledges that and by putting his faith in her during that deadly moment, he was such stable support. Fans, including me, want Lance character development, and I think it's slowly being revealed in moments like that. It's not about sacrificing himself, not totally at least, but Lance is growing into his role as a right-hand man, an advisor and a support. Season 3, where he really was supporting Keith? Yea, that's also showing up in s4. Someone mentioned the fact he didn't make a snarky comment at Shiro when he could have been all "I told you so" and that's really showing maturity. Sure, during the Coran brainwashing episode, he's definitely playing up his "player" status but really, that episode was about the creators. I mean all those stereotypes, they are the initial boxes into which the characters are placed. It just makes for easy relatedness, like yea, this character has these traits, etcetera. But for those characters to break out of those boxes will take time. Also, there was Hunk charactr development, and sort of reaffirmation too. I mean, he's lovable cuddly chef but he's also freaking smart (there is now a smart trio that are all nerds together and I love it). The fact he went and freaking elbowed that Galra in the face to save Pidge, oh man was that excellent. It shows the bravery Hunk now has, that he goes shooting into the fray instead of being scared. I mean I'm sure it is still scary to him but bravery is acting despite fear. Being given Pidge background was wonderful too, but seriously, freaking heart attack when she got to that grave. After (spoiler for How to Train Your Dragon 2) Hiccup's dad died, I am now vulnerable to believing in character deaths for kids shows. Matt is also just such a total nerd, it's so pure. (Also Kaltenacker interactions were pure fluff and sooooo cute, Coran and Allura being astonished at the act of milking a cow). Speaking of character deaths, NARTI. The total callousness of Lotor in killing her was just absolutely shocking and drove his generals away. I mean, especially for Axca to betray him when she believed in him the most. She will never get over that, because the more faith she had, the greater the betrayal will feel. You could see it in the other two as well, their silence and body postures in their ships after their escape. And it just adds to this utter confusion I have about Lotor. I mean honestly, what is he going to do with quintessence and a trans-reality comet? His duplicity and smarts are the foil for the headstrong Keith, and him saving Keith in the end was great and all but WHAT IS HIS MOTIVE. What drives his actions because I really, truly cannot fathom even much of a theory. AND KEITH SACRIFICING HIMSELF. Lemme talk about that, because that speaks volumes about his character. Part of me thinks that because he now has a firm foundation in Voltron, but also him realizing he isn't actually needed within that foundation of Voltron, it's like he's experienced happiness once and that was enough for him. Like, him reaching out for help by talking to Matt and captain Olia was just so awesome to see because he's not a lone wolf anymore. He can lead and he can ask for help, he won't go it alone, but he also won't put anyone else in danger more than he has to and is willling to give up his life to preserve others. This was to be an act that would save others, total self-sacrifice worthy of the BoM but also because he knows how precious other lives are through Voltron. Keith is a mix not just in terms of being human and Galra, but also creating beliefs and values and actions worthy of both Voltron and the Blade of Mormora. But being a mix also means not truly fitting into either place. Lance is his support, but Keith has always stood on his own two feet alone. Shiro has also been there (anyone else want to know how in the heck Keith and Shiro bonded) but with Shiro not only pressuring him into being a leader when Keith clearly doesn't know how, and then replacing him, that drove Keith away. And then there's Haggar who appears to be returning to being Honerva and that is just, oh heavens what will happen. There like a war going on within Haggar right now, Altean light versus the dark creatures of quintessence. And the cliffhanger ending. Oh how I look forward to next season, particularly interactions between Keith and Lotor, both who don't truly fit in.

[kcwcommentary]

VLD1x06 – “The Fall of the Castle of Lions”

1x06 – “The Fall of the Castle of Lions”

Party in the Castle of Lions for the Arusians. Allura proclaims that Arus is the first planet in the Voltron Alliance. I don’t know precisely what the Arusians are adding that’s useful to the Alliance, but since they’ve been the location of the Castle, and thus Allura and Coran, for 10,000 years they do deserve to be able to call upon the protection and help of the Alliance.

“Vol—tron?” I’m with Keith: I’m not much for cheering.

Shiro’s concern about people coming and going foreshadows that someone will indeed be infiltrating the Castle soon enough. Shiro’s concern here also makes me think of Keith’s concern in the previous episode when Allura first made direct contact with the Arusians. For me, there’s something reassuring about their respective modes of caution.

Sendak is plotting. Haxus moves to clone a signature code of Pidge’s Rover so that he can send another drone into the Castle to cause problems. I like that the episode takes its time to set up the explosion, the trick in the Arusian village, and the trouble that the characters will be dealing with. The pacing allows for tension to build, instead of just dumping trouble on us.

Allura’s conversation with the mice is a much-needed moment to show us that she’s not as confident as she usually seems. It helps counterbalance what we’ve seen of her to this point. She feels under great pressure due to the situation she’s in. The scene quickly moves to her discussing other things with the mice, but that little bit is enough to make her a much more complicated, and thus interesting, character. It shows some of her emotional vulnerability, and that’s the sort of thing that endears me to characters.

Lance being homesick here is something that I feel gets lost too easily in later seasons of the show. I’m a rather rooted, homebody myself, so I totally sympathize with Lance missing his family and home environment.

I’m not sure exactly how I feel about how Allura reacts to learning Pidge is a girl. It’s an aspect of Pidge that is significant enough that I feel like it’s invasive and rude for Allura to try to push Pidge to reveal it, but I also know what it’s like to have something like that about oneself that one is hiding and know how useful and needed it can be to have people try to let you know that they’re available for you to tell. I feel Allura is trying to let Pidge know that talking to her can be a safe space, but it still comes with some awkwardness on how Allura goes about trying to convey that in this scene. But then, that awkwardness could really just be an element that makes the conversation feel like such a realistic conversation two people in this situation would have.

Pidge announces that she’s leaving Voltron since she’s got some information about her brother and father. While I totally understand Pidge placing priority on her family, her leaving now does carry an aspect of betrayal with it. She was just going to steal a craft from the Castle and go off on her own. It’s also another demonstration that Pidge sometimes just does not think things through. What does she know about the galaxy? So far, she’s been to only two non-Earth planets, both of which are peaceful ones. What resources would she have to call upon going off on her own? These are major obstacles to her plan here. Her assumption that her working in isolation will yield results is so naïve. She doesn’t even try to ask the others for help, which suggests she doesn’t trust anyone. Pidge behaving in such short-sighted ways just makes me feel uncomfortable.

I like that we get a bit of a quiet scene between Lance and Coran, as Lance’s being homesick continues. When you have ensemble stories, pairing different characters together to play off of one another is a structural way to reveal some of their respective characterization. It’s still early in this show, this being only the sixth episode, and this pairing of Lance and Coran is one I would expect to come later, not now. Because of that, it feels fresh and interesting having it happen now.

“You ever notice how far the planets are from each other, Coran?” Lance asks. This is a reality of space that a lot of space shows/films ignore either purposefully or out of lack of education – even this show has times in later episode where the reality of how big space is seems to be ignored by the writers. I think people in general just do not realize how absolutely huge space is, including the amount of space within a single solar system, and thus how exponentially larger space between stars, and then space between galaxies is. It is a challenge in writing space-based fiction to balance the need to maintain tension with the reality of the immensity of space. “Like Earth, I can’t even see it,” Lance says. Uh, yeah, a bit past Saturn’s orbit and that happens – that’s why we can’t see Uranus nor Neptune with the naked eye from here on Earth. Lance’s comment here makes it sound like he would expect to have a chance to see Earth from another star system, but that’s something that becomes impossible even within our own system.

“Oh, we had that on Altea, only it wasn’t water, more like rocks. Razor sharp and boiling hot. They could knock a hole right in your head,” Coran says. This makes such little sense. I get that the episode is trying to be all, other planets can be so different than Earth, but this just doesn’t work. Life as we know it needs a liquid compound to serve as a universal solvent. This doesn’t mean that it absolutely has to be water, but the way we know the biology of life to function, water is the most likely candidate for such a substance across the whole universe. So, Altean life would most likely need significant amounts of water, which would result in a water cycle, which would mean they should have actual rain. Also, rock can be either razor sharp or boiling hot, not both. Rock that is hot enough that it could boil, in other words, be liquid, is magma/lava. If Altea is such that its environment allows for the evaporation and condensation of rock, then Altea is a hellish planet. So yeah, this line of Coran’s just does not work.

“You can’t leave,” Keith says. “You can’t tell me what to do!” Pidge retorts. Allura could though. The pod that Pidge wants to take does not belong to Pidge, nor did she ask to use/have it. “I never signed up for a lifetime in space fighting aliens,” Hunk says. Maybe not a lifetime, but the idea that they were working as a group to be able to fight against he Galra isn’t a new, sudden development. For anyone, Hunk included, to act like they didn’t know what the group’s broad goals were is dissonant. Shiro is willing to let Pidge go. He is right that it’s not right to try to force someone to be there, to be part of Voltron if they don’t want to. Shiro tells Pidge to “think about what [she’s] doing,” and that’s so much of my problem with her behavior here: She’s not thinking this through in the slightest. And again, she has no right to take the pod from the team if she’s not going to be part of the team.

When the explosion happens, Lance tries to shield Coran. It’s a nice, heroic moment for his character. The lights shutting down, especially in the external shot of the Castle, feels visceral. The Castle is without power, which they need to launch the Lions and to get the medical facilities working to help Lance. As much as Pidge’s plan to steal a pod bothers me, I do really like the narrative resonance it has in making it available to use here in this emergency. Pidge installed a cloaking device on the pod, and she puts in a similar system on the Green Lion, but I still come back to every Lion could have used having a cloaking system.

Lance was hurt bad by the explosion. Moving him, especially by just slinging his body over one’s shoulder and carrying him, is not medically wise. But that’s what Shiro does.

Shiro and Sendak fight. I still think Sendak’s arm is ridiculous, but Shiro’s is much cooler. The animation of the fight is beautiful. The shot of the collision between their fists in silhouette with a full moon behind them is one of the best shots the show has produced so far. With Lance and now Shiro taken out, Pidge is the only Paladin left in the Castle. That the episode had established Pidge’s adamant desire to leave, putting her in the place of being the only one really able to act within the Castle is narratively fitting. Keith and Allura find out that the attack on the Arusian village was staged specifically to get them out of the Castle.

The Galra have their own crystal, assumedly salvaged from their crashed ship, and they hook it up to the Castle. The fact that their crystal makes the Castle’s big external lights and shielding glow purple – aside from being the show’s use of purple to mono-color evil – suggests their crystal is physically and functionally different than the ones the Castle normally uses. I don’t remember this ever being something that’s examined though.

Coran and Hunk arrive at the Balmera, where Coran explains that though looking like a planet, Balmera are actually animals. It’s kind of funny to me now knowing how much this show violates the basic visual definition of a planet – that reaching a certain size results in a protoplanet forming into a roughly spheroid shape because of its gravity – to see the not-a-planet Balmera here looking more like a planet than a lot of the so-called planets in this show. Unfortunately, the Galra have control of this Balmera. I love Coran’s attempt to verbally evade the Galra ship ordering him to surrender. Coran crashes the pod at the bottom of a mine, with the first shadowy glimpse of the Balmeran people.

Pidge’s efforts inside the Castle demonstrates her Green Paladin quality of being daring. I do like that as much as Pidge frustrates me earlier in the episode, it feels totally believable to me that she can do everything she’s doing here. Her bravery is inspiring. But it also reinforces how the idea of her going off by herself now was not a path to success for her. Though she has to directly act alone, she’s in contact with Allura. There is still an element of teamwork. The situation grows close to being out of their influence, so Pidge opts for something that could realistically kill her: stab the energy system with her bayard to shut it down. It works, but the Galra learn she’s in the Castle.

The episode ends unresolved, and I like that the show is giving this plotline time to breathe. Giving it time emphasizes the tension and magnitude of the situation the characters are dealing with.

[sol1056]

another round of asks: keith

This feels like one of those things where you type ‘keith is’ into google and see what comes up.

Keith is a self-insert

Keith is on his way to becoming (a) god

Keith is destined to be emperor

Keith is friends with Lance > Keith is friends with Shiro 

Keith is over Shiro [ + kills Sendak]

Behind the cut.

Keith is a self-insert

I have no proof for this but I think that a majority of VLD’s writing staff are secretly making Keith their self-insert character.

It’s an amusing idea, but it’s very hard to do that when it’s a collaborative exercise like writing for television. Ostensibly collaborative, that is, ‘cause hell if I know at this point whether anyone has say beyond the EPs, but more on that in another post. 

I’ve never heard of anyone in the deciding-level staff (the EPs or the writers) say that Keith is their favorite. JDS is clear that his personal favorite is Lance, and LM’s been known for being pro-Pidge since the beginning. Early on (like S1), Hedrick’s on record saying that it mapped nicely, since he felt the most affinity for Hunk in some ways, but that’s not what I’d call a preference in the same way as I’ve seen JDS and LM speak of their favorites. 

More likely Keith is not a self-insert so much as a kind of every-hero. It’s really quite remarkable --- given how much the EPs are so blunt about their dislike for Shiro --- how the story events, put together, could be seen as split almost evenly between them. To the point we had nearly two seasons where they were never in the same room together, never exchanged any words, nothing. Like matter and anti-matter. 

To put it bluntly: by S7, Shiro pays the price, and Keith gets the rewards. We didn’t get to this point overnight; in S1/S2, it was split a bit more evenly, and the rest of the team had some share in the prices and the rewards, too. But that concept of an ensemble cast got tossed out the window to lie dead on the highway tarmac, somewhere around S4. 

The thing is, a character needs a conflict, needs an obstacle, because failing (and suffering the consequences) and trying again (and growing from it) is the only route to character development. And that’s been almost criminally denied to Hunk, Lance, and Pidge (and since S3, Allura). Their paths have been continually softened, if not truncated outright. 

I was noodling around last night, and this quote jumped out at me: ‘Dos Santos says they did think Pidge deserved a happy ending. “We wanted Pidge to have the true reunion she deserved...”’ They did the same for Lance and Hunk, whose families also survived. But what about Allura? Is her happy ending just Getting A Nice Boyfriend? Where’s Shiro’s or Keith’s happy ending? 

The result is that the story’s necessary conflict and tension --- because it must be there, or we’re all just watching paint dry --- gets shifted to Keith and Shiro. And with the bulk of that conflict landing on Shiro to suffer all consequences while Keith gets all the hero moments... it’s no surprise Keith might feel like a self-insert, since that treatment usually correlates. 

But I think it’s less self-insert, and more that with Shiro taking on all the EPs’ dislike, there’s not much left for Keith to do. 

Keith is on his way to becoming (a) god

At this rate, Keith will turn into god by the end of the show (like madoka, space dandy, and oban star racers), with all the stuff that gets handed to him, it doesn’t seem far-fetched anymore.

Okay, that’s out of left-field, but... it might actually improve the story if he turned out to be a long-lost twin of Haruhi Suzumiya (though I would totally dig if it were Haruhara Haruko instead, but only if the Atlas turns into a giant iron). 

With the way Keith's quintessence sensing came to the forefront several times this season, I still wonder (and fear, a little) about the possibility of him being part Altean. Even if there is a slim out with learning the druids were Galra, the focus on Alteans still has me worried that the last season will overlook Allura and Romelle in favor of having Keith develop druid powers and learn his connection to the Alteans.

Thing is, we’re so far along in the story that I don’t expect any of the odd abilities to ever be explained --- anymore than we ever got an explanation as to why quintessence reveals a skin tone Keith’s never demonstrated since, at least not to the same striking degree. And truth is, I don’t think the EPs know. I have a strong suspicion there was a lot of groundwork laid in the first two seasons that have since been abandoned. So I don’t expect it to fit together, in the end, and would not be surprised if everything’s hand-waved. 

So who knows. 

Keith is destined to be emperor

People are speculating on Galra emperor Keith (partly because he’s apparently magic now). Would explain why this season pushed Keith as leader... even though he never wanted to be a leader. And the leadership arc wasn’t really natural to his character. Also, whatever happened to democracies?

Emperor? Because magic? I mean, wouldn’t that make Allura a better candidate? I know, it’s so easy to forget she exists, now, but she did have a line or two this season. (Okay okay I kid, she had maybe a half-dozen.) 

I really don’t know. When I put on my writer’s hat, Keith’s entire arc really doesn’t make much sense. He spent way too much time in S2 and S3 protesting and fighting ever being a leader, and I have no idea how he got from that point to S7′s sudden undiscussed and unquestioned acceptance of the role. If there was development there, I would’ve liked to have seen it. 

Because without that, it’s still hard to look at the character onscreen and see it as the same person. Maybe they are setting up Keith to be emperor. I have no idea how that logic even works. Of course, seems like logic left the building about four seasons back but go off I guess. 

That reminds me of the teaser version that used to be all over the place --- and now I only see on the Google results --- that closes with “to conquer the Galra Empire.” That’s a rather specific word, compared to, say, “overthrow” or “defeat” or “end.” Conquering is what you do when your plan is to take over, after all. Maybe the idea of Emperor Keith isn’t that out-there. Hell if I know. 

As for democracies... well, the EPs have never mentioned influences that’d make me think genre political savvy (ie Gundam, Code Geass, Gasaraki, etc). Probably easier to have monarchs: one Puigian leader for the entire planet. 

Earth does get to be the exception there... with a social structure that appears to rest entirely in the quasi-military hands of the Garrison. Was there even a single civilian present, as the obligatory elected spokesperson for the people?  Pretty sure there wasn’t. (This is not unique to VLD; we have the same discussion on a regular basis in the SFF community about the bizarre prevalence of monarchial systems in American-written SFF.)  

Keith is friends with Lance > Keith is friends with Shiro  

There were scenes which would be v sweet for Keith and Lance if they weren't explicitly there to prove how useless Shiro is, and many to show how useless KEITH thinks Shiro is, and that’s why Keith took [Shiro’s] place. [Before S7] ... Keith wouldn't step on Shiro like that, take Black and his place in the team and his healing away from him. But S7? Behold the new Shiro and Keith dynamic. Keith choosing Lance to lead while Shiro’s right there? Roger that team leader SHIRO’S RIGHT THERE! +Sendak thing?

@sassafrassrex did a meta on the Sendak-Shiro fight that’s a must-read, so I won’t repeat that here. As for the rest... I mentioned above that Keith felt very unlike himself this season, and his dynamic with Shiro --- or complete lack thereof --- was a big part of it. 

After all this time, we’re overdue for seeing a solid friendship between all the paladins, and that includes Keith and Lance. Most of what I saw felt... well, uneven would be the best word. S1/S2 at its best, between them, was more of a good-natured teasing. S7 felt harsher, to me, as though it was Keith’s turn to be the asshole.  

More than that, though, is that it almost feels like the writers can’t figure out how Keith could cherish Shiro and yet have other friends --- so instead they chose to highlight Lance to the near-exclusion of Shiro. And that’s no better for Lance, either, because again he’s just a substitute. 

Frankly, I’m tired of Lance always ending up with someone else’s leftovers. 

Keith is over Shiro

They really had Keith kill a version of his most important person in the world (who he thought was Shiro) so he can rise as BP, then toss Shiro aside as broken, even choosing Lance as right hand over him. *And* to pick the one who abandoned him twice -- and at the end were [framed as a] “family" with Kolivan -- over Shiro who never gave up on him. Krolia even got an I-love-you *and* got called Mom for leaving. What fucked-up messages, lemme tell you, as someone who relates to Keith.

Put like that, it is pretty brutal. Not sure how else to read how completely Shiro is excluded from the narrative for the first 3/4s of the season, down to being literally frozen out --- and it’s most striking of all considering this is Keith we’re talking about. The one even the EPs describe as being so devoted to Shiro that he’d never dream --- let alone be capable of --- walking away (though the co-dependent note in that description skeeves me out some)... and then S7 starts and after the first episode, the two barely exchange any words. 

This was the one person Shiro was always vulnerable with, and Shiro was the one person Keith relaxed around. While yes, the team is way way overdue for doing that with each other beyond their original dynamics (and what I wouldn’t give for some real friendship-bonding between Allura and Keith, damn it), the complete absence made the season feel hollow. 

Just as Lance’s and Hunk’s friendship provided heart in the early seasons, so did Shiro’s and Keith’s. The absence of that, in S7, was nearly palpable. And it did make Keith look like someone who’d taken a long hard look at his best friend and decided Shiro was no longer worth it. This is the character who’d go back for a colleague even when the clock is ticking, who didn’t want to see Thace sacrifice himself, or see Regris killed, and went to the ends of the universe for Shiro? What wouldn’t he do for a friend? Unless, of course, that friend was killed, cloned, and brought back broken.

It comes down to two possible explanations: one is that the writers genuinely don’t know how to balance Keith’s devotion to Shiro while also letting Keith connect to the rest of the team. I’m having trouble believing they’d be that clueless about how friendships work, though. 

The other possibility is that we didn’t quite get the entire story when JDS said there’d been two versions of S6. I think what we’re seeing is the original script and storyboards for S7, leftover from when the EPs pitched a version where Shiro died at the end of S2 and never returned. 

The reason might’ve gone like this: we need N hours to sit down and write S7 with Shiro as Black Paladin (as they would for any other season). But if we just re-use the original storyboards with Keith as Black Paladin, we’ll save X dollars. Just edit a little to add Shiro, plus we’ll have the cash freed up to do [some set piece] so it’s really cool. 

JDS pitched the Atlas as the awesome and amazing consolation prize for Shiro, according to recent interviews. He might’ve argued the cost-cutting step would also let them expand Shiro’s role in the finale. 

My guess for the reason why Keith was the one to kill Sendak (besides the writers hating shiro and Keith needing to resolve every plotline himself now) is that Shiro killed Zarkon, the first major villain, so maybe that was one of their reasons to give that kill to Keith.

I was pondering that until I got to thinking about why the execs would reverse course and allow the EPs to shelve Shiro. I think that’s the reason Keith kills Sendak: it remained from the original storyline, where Keith took revenge on the person who’d tortured Keith’s best friend. Which in Shiro’s absence would’ve been powerful. In Shiro’s presence it’s... demoralizing. 

Bottom line: execs love cost reductions above all else. (Newsflash: DW is a business.) Given how the execs have consistently been described as pro-Shiro, cost is the only thing I can see convincing them otherwise. Especially if the series has already hit budget overruns from rewrites and redoes in previous seasons --- and if they’ve done this before to save money, by pasting Kuron where Keith would’ve been for most of S3-S6. 

That would explain why Keith doesn’t seem to even notice Shiro for most of S7. Because when the script was written, Shiro wasn’t there. 

note: it might also explain the EPs’ hints at a spoiler, but I’ll leave that wild speculation to @ptw30 to explain.

[lynfantasy]

Lotor?

(For this character ask challenge)OOF. Alright, prepare yourself for salt, because I absolutely love this character no matter what, and that is precisely why I am very mad at the official crew about him. (Though I swear this isn’t ALL salt.)

The last time I did this ask challenge, I answered these questions for Lotor here, but that was before season 5 even came out. Now…

(Putting this under a read-more because this is LONG – there’s two long playlists under the “song” section, and I added a ton of screenshots at the end.)

Favorite thing about them: I loved how complex and out-of-the-ordinary he was. He wasn’t a hero, he wasn’t a villain, and he wasn’t even a traditional antihero. He wasn’t good, but he was altruistic; he wasn’t bad, but he was willing to do things that no one else would. He was neutral, and he didn’t need to be redeemed into goodness. He certainly didn’t seem to have any reason to fall or rise – he already knew what he wanted and how he was going to get it, and both his motives and means were shockingly pure.And then…Least favorite thing about them: Season 6 just completely ruined him. That colony thing?? I’ve vented to many friends about this, and there’s a post I have half-written that I might put up sometime, but it just doesn’t make sense to me. The creators of the show said that they wanted him to be a morally gray character, but then they had had him commit a truly evil act? And he doesn’t even seem repentant for it? I just can’t forgive them for doing this to him. This wasn’t some “cool plot twist.” I’m not sitting here, thinking, “Wow, I really fell for that, didn’t I?” I don’t feel like Lotor betrayed me. I feel like the writers betrayed him and did him a disservice.Favorite line: “All I ask is that you judge me by my actions rather than your preconceptions of my race.” This line was just… wow.Also: “My father’s blood is not just in my veins. It’s also on my sword.” Damn.I also still very much love his opening speech in season 3, and a special shout-out goes to his speech in the beginning of season 6 until Sendak interrupted it.BrOTP: Mmmm, well, Team Sincline forever. In a better universe, they’re all still getting up to their own shenanigans together.I also still wish that Lotor and Keith had gotten a chance to bond. It could have been great.But let’s all take a moment to acknowledge what a great and supportive friendship Lotor and Shiro had in season 5. That was good. Good on you, (clone) Shiro.OTP: Lancelot. I can’t really explain why, but this is my favorite ship. In a close second place comes Polycline, the ship of Lotor and his generals all together in a romantic sense, which just warms my polyam-loving heart.As for what I would like to see in canon, well, I was pretty happy with Lotura, and I’m still holding out hope that they might have some dramatic redemptive reconciliation.NoTP: Eh, I don’t really do NoTPs. I can’t say I’m fond of Lotor/Throk, though.Random headcanon: I think Lotor’s ships are perfectly capable of making it through the Quantum Rift without being subjected to the time dilation effects. I also think that, on more than one occasion, Lotor has purposefully turned down the protection against time dilation because he can’t afford to take time off but he really needs a break, and what better way to accomplish that than to take a trip that will give him weeks or months to himself but will only cause him to miss about a week in regular time?Unpopular opinion:

FANWORK CONTENT CREATORS CAN STILL MAKE CONTENT WITH A SOFT CHARACTERIZATION FOR LOTOR. SHIPPERS CAN STILL SHIP LOTOR/PALADIN SHIPS. CANON SHOULD NEVER LIMIT CREATIVITY.

Song i associate with them: Hoo boy, I have not one but two playlists for him… Instead of linking a playlist, I’ll just list the songs for you all to find at your leisure, since everyone uses different music services (and honestly, I just pirate off of YouTube 99% of the time).

My “canon” playlist, in chronological order, is:

Natural by Imagine Dragons – I’m so glad this came out recently, because if there’s any singular theme song that fits Lotor in every canonical aspect, this is it.

Who We Are by Imagine Dragons – Team Sincline. Need I say more?

Best Day of My Life (minor key) by Chase Holfelder – If you only know this song in its major form, you might very well be wondering why it’s here, but Chase Holfelder’s minor key version has a very different tone to it, and I think it fits Lotor quite well for season 3.

Gold by Imagine Dragons – This works for his rise to power in season 3 and fall in season 4, as well as hinting at his eventual rise and fall again in 5 & 6 and that final snap at the end of 6. It could honestly go at the end, but I thought it fit best here, as the season 4 song.

Icarus by Bastille – I associate this song with both Keith and Lotor in seasons 3 & 4. Honestly, if you listen to the chorus, it sounds like them both at the end of season 4. Icarus (Lotor) is flying too close to the sun… Icarus (Keith) is flying towards an early grave.

Blame by Bastille – This isn’t a perfect fit, but it reminds me of Lotor’s pleading with the Paladins at the beginning of season 5 to not hand him over to Zarkon. Honestly, I sort of picture Lance as the one singing the scathing verses. There’s no room for you here.

I’m So Sorry by Imagine Dragons – This could also go anywhere, but I can picture this as a backdrop to Lotor’s final confrontation with Zarkon. It’s so scathing and sarcastic, except for the bridge. I imagine the bridge as being addressed to Lotor’s generals.

White Blank Page by Mumford and Sons – Canon Lotura. Just… just listen to it. It’s so tragic and fits them so well for season 6.

This Is Gospel -> Emperor’s New Clothes by Panic! At the Disco – Initially, I was going to put just Emperor’s New Clothes on here for Lotor’s breakdown in season 6, but I listened to these two back-to-back, and I thought that This is Gospel fits in a tragic way if you think of it as the sane part of Lotor’s mind trying to warn Allura, knowing that he cannot fight the corruption of Quintessence.

Wolf In Sheep’s Clothing by Set It Off – …I mean, in light of season 6, how could I not include this one. The bridge is basically a summary of that final confrontation.

Viva La Vida by Coldplay – Initially, I had this as a song for season 4, but I couldn’t leave this playlist on such a bitter note. I like to picture that Lotor will eventually come out of the Quintessence field and, alone and without resources, will have to hide out somewhere and rethink a lot of things, and this song is perfect for that.

I’ll Be Good by Jaymes Young – Following the thread of an eventual redemption from the previous song, I think this would suit a redeemed, post-s6 Lotor very well. It’s also simply a very bittersweet and beautiful song to end off on, and it stands in very strong contrast against Natural, the first song on the playlist.

My other playlist is for miscellaneous songs that don’t fit into the canon timeline and for ship songs. In no particular order:

Stay Frosty Royal Milk Tea by Fall Out Boy – This is such a Lotor song, but it technically doesn’t fit canon, since he did become emperor. However, I’ve got an AU story that this fits perfectly, and I think it suits a lot of other Lotor-centric AUs I’ve seen. Besides, thematically, it really does fit Lotor pre-s5.

Broken Crown by Mumford & Sons – The meaning of this song is ambiguous, but if you interpret the “crown” here as literal, it could suit Lotor pretty well, especially in an AU where he refuses to rule.

Therapy by All Time Low – I think this would fit a human AU best, but it could work for any version of Lotor who is introspective about his own flaws and problems.

Battlefield (Meet Me on the Battlefield) by SVRCINA – I’m a little iffy on this one, but someone else recommended it to me as a Lotor ship song, and I do think it could fit a few different Lotor ships quite nicely. The song is primarily about revolution and altruism, both of which fit Lotor, and the romantic aspects would work well for a Lotor/paladin ship.

I Walk the Line by Halsey & Walking the Wire by Imagine Dragons – These two songs work well as two sides of the same coin. I particularly imagine them for Lancelot. Lotor sings I Walk the Line, talking about the difficulty of maintaining a balance between his relationship and his loyalties in the war but declaring that he will be true to Lance above all, and Lance sings the far more optimistic Walking the Wire, saying that although this balancing act is difficult, they will come out on top, together. It could theoretically work for another Lotor ship, but Walking the Wire is such a Lance song that I really picture it for the two of them.

Hold Me Tight or Don’t by Fall Out Boy – Funny story, I pictured this as a Sheith song first, but then @noirsongbird recommended it to me as a Lancelot song, and… yeah, it fits. It also specifically fits one of her (very good!) fanfics, so that’s cool.

King and Lionheart by Of Monsters and Men – Technically, this could sort of work for any Lotor/paladin ship, but I think it would work better for Keitor, Shotor, or Lancelot. It was recommended to me by @noirsongbird as a Lancelot song, and I have to agree that it fits them very well.

I Don’t Know Why by Imagine Dragons – Again, this could work for multiple Lotor/paladin ships, but I picture it for Lancelot. It’s a great forbidden love song, so it would suit a secret romance across battle lines quite nicely.

So… yeah. A lot of music. Sorry? I’m sure this isn’t even everything, haha.

Favorite picture of them: Oh gosh, how could I choose…

Like… damn.

But also…

He’s so cute and pretty??

I mean, just look at him.

For favorite fanworks, I’ve got to put this one up, of course (and please follow this link to the post for it and give it a like!):

This was a gift to me for my very recent 20th birthday by my amazing friend @honestlyprettychill (thank you again babe)!!

There’s a lot of other really good Lotor fanart out there. Check out @itsnotdoneyet and @invidiaesc for some great stuff.

Annnnd that’s it! Sorry this took so long. I hope I answered the questions to everyone’s satisfaction! I have an ask for Keith that I’ll work on next, but I don’t have any after that yet, so please feel free to send in more!

[douchebagbrainwaves]

THE COURAGE OF WAY

Now it's easy to figure this out: just take a shower. During the Bubble a lot of it. Most people can seem confident when you're saying it. The best way to convince the lukewarm ones. We were so attached to our name that we offered him 5% of the company is not also the lead developer. The solution is at the other end. It meant that a the only way to get rich was not to create wealth, whatever they have has to be treated as a threat to a company's survival. In those days people's stuff fit in a chest of drawers. A lot of VCs would have rejected Microsoft. What does a startup do now, in the imperfect world we currently inhabit?

But you should treat your optimism the way you'd treat the core of a nuclear reactor: as a source of power that's also very dangerous. To be hapless is to be disappointed. 0 democracy is not in the calm, womb-like atmosphere of a big company be doing research, and set them to work instead on problems of the most popular sites were quite high-handed about it.1 In a hundred years the only social networking sites will be the ones who obligingly flew Altavista into a hillside just as Google was getting started. You see the same gap between Raymond Chandler and the average writer of detective novels. I do that the main reason is that they can't get paid for it? Startups hurt themselves way more often than competitors hurt them, for example just use shorter identifiers than others.

The structure of their business means a partner does at most 2 new investments a year, no matter what, and the best startup ideas look initially like bad ideas, it's not made equally. If they're real problems, fix them.2 Now that VCs have competitors, that's going to fall over, taking them with it. After four years of trying to teach it to people, I'd say that yes, surprisingly often it can. What I tell most startups we fund could make as good a bet a few months in, they probably didn't. Perhaps the most important quality is in a startup is best seen not as a way to do this could leave competitors who didn't in the dust.3 Don't say that a character's angry; have him grind his teeth, or break his pencil in half.

I think at least some of the books. I had to explain what to look for in founders. If you want to say, and the serfs who work their estates.4 Force yourself, as a popular novelist. 0 mean anything? Markets are less forgiving.5 So we ditched Artix and started a new company, Viaweb, to make software for building web sites, you could make it.6 Venture investors are driven by exit strategies.7 And why only do it once?8 In any interesting domain, the difficulties will be novel.

Notes

You can't be buying users; that's a rational response to what you really want, like architecture and filmmaking, but I'm not saying public school kids arrive at college with a sufficiently long time. If you like doing. Then it's up to two of the optimism Europeans consider distinctly American is simply that it offers a vivid illustration of that.

At the seed stage our valuation was in principle get us up to his house, though it be in the Valley, the more educated ones come up with is a self fulfilling prophecy. If this happens because they're determined to fight. Brooks, Rodney, Programming in Common Lisp, which is probably part of its users, not where to see the apples, they cancel out and you start fundraising, because for times over a series A round about the meaning of the anti-takeover laws, starting with the definition of important problems includes only those on the richer end of World War II had disappeared. As a friend who started a company they'd pay a premium for you; you're too busy to feel guilty about it.

Foster, Richard and David Whitehouse, Mohammed, Charlemagne and the manager, which allowed banks and savings and loans to buy stock, which is just about the subterfuges they had to pay employees this way that makes the best are Goodwin Procter, Wilmer Hale, and as a whole is becoming more fragmented, the main emotion I've observed; but as a source of income and b the valuation of the 3 month old Microsoft presented at a time of unprecedented federal power, so they will only be a predictor of high school is that it's hard to pick the former, and—A Spam Classification Organization Program. You're too early if it's dismissed, it's shocking how much of observed behavior. I have set up grant programs to encourage more startups in this they're perfect. Many people feel good.

But it is very high, so buildings are traditionally seen as temporary; there is a coffee-drinking vegan cartoonist whose work they see and say that's not relevant to an employer. But it is not writing the agreement, but that's not likely to have been the first meeting. The answer is simple: pay them to get all the returns may be some things it's a harder problem than Hall realizes. A preliminary result, that alone could in principle get us up to his time was 700,000 sestertii for his freedom Dessau, Inscriptiones 7812.

They accepted the article, but art is a self fulfilling prophecy.

If doctors did the same thing—trying to capture the service revenue as well. Every pilot knows about this trick merely forces you to believing anything in particular took bribery to the home team, I've become a genuine addict. It is a new business designed for us!

This is why hackers give you money for. Bureaucrats manage to think of.

Though in a band, or that an idea where the acquirer just wants the employees. But the most recent version of this theory is that some of them is that there could be adjacent. Because in the King James on foreign policy, he was a sort of community.

Thanks to Brian Burton, Shiro Kawai, Patrick Collison, Sam Altman, Jackie McDonough, and Harj Taggar for smelling so good.

[noblegambit]

Pocket Sized - Chapter 2

I know I haven’t really established myself as a writer in the Voltron fandom, but I’m slowly working my way there. I can’t guarantee that all updates will be this fast but I’ll do my best. :)

Ao3, Chapter 1, 2

Chapter 2

Keith hates morning. Hates the unpredictability of them. Hates clunking down the stairs at 8am on a Saturday in sweats for his daily kendo practice and being interrupted by Shiro on the way down.

“Keith…”

Keith glares his best too-early-for-this expression at his older brother and is about to groan out a good morning when he sees Shiro’s expression. It’s the kind of expression he wore when he had to tell Keith that mom and dad wouldn’t be coming home. Keith immediately understands. “What’s wrong?” he asks. “Did you get fired?”

“Lance is missing,” Shiro says, and Keith’s blood runs cold. “He didn’t come home last night. The police just asked if we know anything.”

Lance’s words ring in Keith’s ears. We used to be best friends! Lance had run off into the storm, and now he was missing. Keith regretted saying such harsh things to Lance; as much as he disliked Lance, he didn’t want him dead.

“His phone is still at his house, so the police can’t track him. Keith, if you know anything…”

“I’ll call you later,” Keith interrupts and leans his kendo stick against the wall before running for the door.

It only takes him a few minutes at his top running speed to reach the bus stop from the night before. He pants heavily, turning in circles, scanning the area as if Lance would pop out from an alley and try to tease Keith for being so worried. When that didn’t work, Keith jogged in the direction Lance had run, keeping his eyes peeled for stupid teenagers.

At some point he realizes he’s near the old abandoned park that he and Lance had discovered as children. Over time, Lance would go there whenever he was sad, and only Keith knew where to find him.

It’s a long shot, Keith figures, but better than nothing.

It doesn’t take him long to reach the edge of the park. Keith stops. An initial scan of the area reveals that Lance is not there. He decides to make a few rounds anyway, and begins to walk around the perimeter.

“Lance!” Keith cups his hands around his mouth for better volume. “Lance!”

“-eith!”

Keith stops at the faint sound of his name. He was positive it was Lance’s voice, but it was so faint he couldn’t discern from which direction it was coming from. “Lance!?”

“Keith! O-er –ere!”

Keith turns, the voice coming from behind him. But Lance is nowhere to be seen. He feels stupid, calling Lance’s name over and over again like some kind of Marco Polo game, but he continues anyway.

“Lance!”

“Keith!”

Keith rounds the small outcrop near the back of the park, and a flash of blue catches his eye. He comes around completely to find a small cave, perfect size for a brooding teenager. On the ground lie Lance’s clothes, the same bright blue sweatshirt and black shorts he had been wearing last night. In a bout of panic, Keith kneels and scoops up the sweatshirt, the cloth still damp from yesterday’s rain.

Could Lance be in trouble? Why would he take off all his clothes?

“Keith! I’m down here!”

“Lance? Lance, where are you!?”

“Over here!”

Keith does his best to follow the sound of the tiny voice, so jarringly opposite from Lance’s usual loud and obnoxious tone. He scans the tiny outcropping of rock, looking for his (ex) childhood friend’s ugly mug.

“Down here!”

Down?  Keith glances down, and almost trips on a rock.

A tiny Lance, no taller than an inch and wearing nothing but a leaf wrapped around his hips, is jumping up and down and waving his arms frantically to get Keith’s attention. Keith blinks once, and blinks again.

“Wha…? Lance!?”

Satisfied that Keith could see him, Lance crosses his arms and taps his foot impatiently. “Took you long enough.”

Keith squats so he can be on a somewhat closer eye level with Lance. He can’t believe his eyes… he reaches out a finger as if to poke Lance, and then thinks better of it and instead pinches himself hard.

“Ow!”

“What’d you do that for?”

“Making sure this isn’t a dream…”

“Weren’t you the one who was always into cryptids and supernatural stuff?” Lance points out, one tiny eyebrow raised. He gestures to himself, “Exhibit A.”

Keith slowly lowers a hand to Lance’s level, and the shrunken boy takes the hint. He steps delicately into Keith’s palm, holding onto one of his fingers for support as Keith raises his cupped hands to his own face. “I can’t believe this.”

“Neither can I,” Lance remarks, and uses a hand to adjust his leaf. “And I really hate to be a nuisance because I know you can’t stand me…” Keith winces at that. “But I haven’t eaten since yesterday and in case you haven’t seen it yet, I’m wearing a leaf.”

“Oh, oh right.”

Keith straightens and sets Lance on his shoulder. The tiny boy grips onto Keith’s hair for support and Keith leaves the park and makes his way into town. He stops by a small convenience store for food, as Lance whispers into his ear like some kind of demon on Keith’s shoulder.

“Are there any Mars Bars? Damn I could go for a Mars Bars right now. Oh, and can I get some Twinkies? Those would be – hey!”

Keith had pulled Lance from his shoulder and transferred him to his sweatshirt pocket with a growled “Shut up.”

Keith pays for the snacks with the little pocket change he had when he’d run out of the house to look for Lance, and watches Lance eat barely a fourth of a single Twinkie before he can’t eat anymore.

Keith would admit that watching a one-inch-tall person eat was fascinating. Strictly speaking it wasn’t any different than how normal sized people eat, but the portions were so small…

“Quit staring at me,” Lance barks once he’s declared himself full.

“Sorry.”

‘No you’re not.”

Keith sighs and scoops Lance up, depositing him in his pocket once again and making his way back to their neighborhood.

Lance’s family is a-flurry outside, his parents speaking frantically to a police officer and a few extended family members that didn’t live too far. Chloe is sitting on a bench, swinging her legs and looking a little bored.

“Please officer, find our son,” Lance’s mother pleads.

“We’re doing our best, ma’am,” says he officer. “I can’t officially declare him missing until twenty-four hours have passed…”

“This is bad,” Keith says, observing the scene outside Lance’s house. He can feel Lance leaning slightly so he can see the commotion, and is unusually quiet. “Come on, we have to let them know you’re okay.”

At that, Lance starts. “What? No!”

“Why not!?”

“I don’t want them to see me like this!” Lance gestures to himself again for good measure. “I’d be sent away to be experimented on! Dissected, then maybe sent to a traveling circus freak show!”

“They’re your parents, Lance,” Keith tries. “They’ll understand.”

“No…” Lance’s voice is so quiet Keith has to strain to hear it. “They’ll be in shock. We just had a big fight, Keith, and seeing me like this will only make it worse.”

“But don’t you think them not knowing you’re okay will make it even more worse?”

Lance contemplates that, and grips the hem of the pocket tighter. “Let’s leave.”

Keith still doesn’t like it, but concedes anyway. “Fine. But this conversation isn’t over.”

They go back into Keith’s house next door, past Shiro who asks Keith if he had found Lance. A soft kick in Keith’s side prompts him to answer, “No. Nothing.”

Up in Keith’s room, Keith sets Lance down on his bed. Lance watches as Keith digs into the very back of his closet to find a small box full of old action figures. “This will have to do for now,” Keith says, and sets the box on his desk to rifle through old GI Joes and Captain Americas. He pulls out a pair of tiny camo pants and throws them at Lance.

Lance lets out an oof as the pants hit his tiny body at a speed thrown by normal sized arm muscles. “Watch it!”

“Sorry not sorry,” Keith mutters, and slides the box under the bed in case he needs it… wow. That was a sentence he never thought he’d think.

While Lance uses a pillow as a divider to change clothes, Keith kneels on the floor and rests his arms on the mattress. “So while you’re doing that, if you’re going to hide here, we need to establish some ground rules.”

“Like what?”

“Rule number one: don’t touch any of my stuff,” Keith demands. “Rule number two: don’t let Shiro find you.”

Lance comes out from behind the pillow, dragging his leaf behind him and wearing only the camo pants. They seem to fit well enough, though Keith can tell he’s going to need something more substantial… and a shirt. Lance waves his hand dismissively. “Yeah, yeah, I got it.”

“Also, no – !”

“Um, Keith.”

“What now?”

Lance seems to struggle with how to mention it, and eventually decides to play charades. He crosses his legs and wiggles his butt, bottom lip sucked in between his teeth.

“What… the hell??” Keith mutters. “I’m not playing charades with you Lance, what do you want?”

Lance just wiggles harder, using his hands this time to mime…  oh. Ooooh.

Keith averts his eyes and glances around his room, for some kind of… something for Lance to use. Eventually he spots the dead plant outside his windowsill that he never bothered to throw away. Keith stands and slides the window open so Lance can access it.

“I don’t need this plant, so you can use it as a bathroom, I guess,” Keith mumbles.

Lance looks almost horrified at the thought of using a plant, and Keith almost laughs at the scandalized look on the tiny boy’s face.

“Keith, you’re going to be late,” Shiro calls from downstairs.

“Be right down!” Keith turns to Lance once again. “I have to go to school, so just remember the first two rules and we’ll discuss more about this after I get home.”

Lance looks conflicted for a moment, and finally nods quietly. Keith starts to head downstairs when Lance says, “Keith.”

Keith turns, one hand on the doorknob. “Hm?”

Lance twists his hands together. “Thanks.”

Keith allows himself to smile a little before he goes downstairs and closes the door behind him.

Keith can’t believe what he’s hearing.

“Lance isn’t here!”

“He’s never missed a day of school… I wonder what happened?”

“Maybe he was abducted by aliens!”

Keith shakes his head and continues fooling around on his phone. People can believe what they want to believe, but aliens is a more convincing story than shrinking to barely taller than Keith’s thumb.

Lance’s friends, Hunk and Pidge, sit with their heads worriedly together, whispering. Keith feels a little bad for them, being left out of the loop, but Keith could tell that Lance didn’t want anyone to know what had happened to him. And that included his friends. So Keith holds his tongue and remains seated.

After Ms. Allura’s class, Hunk catches her right outside of the classroom. Pidge rounds the corner from her own class and they bombard her with questions. Keith hangs back a little to listen.

“Lance hasn’t missed a day of school since kindergarten,” Hunk is saying. “And for him to suddenly skip isn’t like Lance at all.”

“Do you know anything?” Pidge asks, trying and failing to keep the fear out of her voice.

Ms. Allura sadly shakes her head. “I don't know anything,” she says. “But I’m sure Lance knows what he’s doing…”

“Ms. Allura! Ms. Allura!”

They all turn to see Coach Coran barreling down the hallway. He stops at their side and says breathlessly, “Is it true that Lance Sanchez ran away!?”

Keith buries his face in his hand. Coach Coran couldn’t have said it any louder, could he? All the students in the hallway hear and turn simultaneously, hungry for latest gossip. Keith slides down in his chair and tries not to be noticed.

This proves futile when he sees someone stop by his desk, and see that it’s the new girl, Nyma. She smiles at him, hands clasped behind her back innocently. “Hey, Keith.”

Keith doesn’t give her much attention; he has a bad feeling about her. But he can’t be rude, so he mutters a quiet, “Hey.”

“I was just thinking about yesterday,” Nyma is saying as she pulls up a chair to sit next to him. “With what’s his name?”

“Lance.”

Nyma grins. “Right! It’s just I heard he’s missing.”

Keith does his best to keep a neutral face. “I’ve heard that, too.”

“Do you know anything about it?”

Keith chokes and covers it up with a cough. “Wh-what would give you that idea?”

Nyma shrugs, eyes Keith with a calm air. “It seems like you guys have some kind of history.”

“That’s all it is,” Keith mutters. “History.”

“Hmm…” Nyma murmurs to herself. “Then I guess you really can’t tell what’s going on with some people,” she muses. “You think he has a sugar momma somewhere…?”

Hunk and Pidge reenter the room just in time to hear Nyma. Hunk has to physically wrap an arm around Pidge to keep her from strangling the other girl. Keith, too, feels a strange emotion bloom in his chest, and stands roughly from his desk. “Lance and I may not be friends,” he says, angrily to a surprised looking Nyma. “But he is not that kind of person.”

“I didn’t mean to imply – ”

Keith doesn’t want to be there any longer. He is still not one hundred percent sure he’s conscious, and hasn’t been able to pay attention in class due to recalling every possible cryptid or conspiracy theory that could cause or explain the shrinking of a human being. It was no use. Keith begins to pack his bag, slinging it over his shoulder and running from the room. Hunk and Pidge call after him, but he ignores them.

Shiro isn’t home when Keith arrives, which he is silently thankful for. Keith barges into his room and dumps his bag on the floor. Lance is nowhere to be seen.

“Lance?” Keith asks quietly.

No response. Oh, good. Maybe this entire morning had been a dream and he had been agonizing over nothing.

“Keeeeeeeeith!!!”

Keith closes his eyes and sighs. His life is never that simple, is it? He scans the room, and finally spots Lance trapped outside on the windowsill, banging his tiny fists against the glass to get Keith’s attention. Keith rolls his eyes and goes to open the window. “I leave you for three hours and you get stuck outside?”

Lance hops back into the room and leans against the wall. “Rich, coming from the guy whose brother cleans his room!”

Keith narrows his eyes in confusion. “Shiro doesn’t clean my room.”

Lance laughs out loud. It’s a cute sound when it’s so tiny. “Right, you weren’t here, dude. I had to hide in your pencil case while he was fussing around. And then I went to hide behind my bathroom plant and he closed the window on me!” Lance rubbed his hands across his arms. “I don’t have a shirt, Keith, and it’s cold outside!”

“Sorry, I think my shirts are a little big for you,” Keith snaps sarcastically, and then sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose. “Anyway, we have a big problem. Everyone at school knows you’re missing. Either you’ve died or run away with someone you met online.”

Lance bursts out laughing, and actually has to wipe miniscule tears from his eyes. “Oh my god that’s amazing.”

“It’s not amazing,” Keith snaps. “Your friends, Hunk and Pidge, are really worried about you, man. “

That sobers Lance up.  “Yeah,” he says to himself. “I guess I should call them… Keith did you happen to pick up my phone at the park?”

Keith shakes his head. “According to Shiro you left it at your house.”

Lance’s eyes suddenly widen. “Oh, shit, Keith. You didn’t bring any of my stuff back from the park.”

“No…?

“Dude!? What if they form a search party and find my clothes! They’re gonna think I was kidnapped and murdered and dismembered and scattered all around the city and they’ll dig up the entire place and --!”

“Alright, alright, I get it!” Keith sighs.

An hour later sees Keith back at the park, dressed as inconspicuous as he can as he stuffs Lance’s mostly dry clothes into a spare gym bag. “Why the hell am I doing this?” he asks himself with every thrust of cloth or shoe. “He owes me big time.”

Being inconspicuous with a gym bag full of clothes during school hours is a chore, to say the least. Luckily Keith makes it back to his house with no trouble, but Keith is not in a good mood when he returns. Lance is leaning a ruler he’d found lying around against a book when Keith opens the door, apparently in the process of measuring his newfound height.

“Hey, Keith, good news!” Lance cheers. “Turns out I’m two inches tall.”

Keith groans. “Congratulations. Now can you please just go home?”

Lance’s smile drops. “I thought I told you I don’t want them to see me like this.”

“But why me?” Keith’s frustration is finally emerging. “Why do you have to stay with me!?”

“Hey, I didn’t get to pick who found me!” Lance yells back. “I was almost eaten by a bird, and insects are not so harmless when they’re as big as you. Look, I’m not happy about this situation either, but it looks like we’re just stuck with each other for now.” Lance stops yelling and takes on a more pleading tone. “Can I please stay here? Until I grow back to normal? You know, for all I know this could just be a twenty-four hour thing and I’ll be back to normal by tomorrow.”

Keith weighs his options. He could just dump Lance into his parents’ hands and be done with it; not much Lance can do about that when he’s only one inch – pardon, two inches – tall. That would get Lance out of his hair for good, and Keith wouldn't have to deal with him ever again. Or, Keith could let Lance stay in his room and they can figure out how to get Lance back to normal.

As much as Keith would love the first option, the second is much more intriguing. He’d be lying if he said he wasn’t curious about how such a phenomenon like Lance’s predicament could occur, and some excitement in his dull, monotonous life would be a nice change of pace. The only thing holding him back was that it was Lance of all people, his estranged best friend turned… what? Enemies?

Keith finally gave in to the pleading look Lance was giving him, hands clasped under his chin and lower lip jutted out in a tiny pout. “Alright, fine,” Keith says. “You can stay here.”

The smile on Lance’s face looks good on him. Whoa, what.

“Thank you so much! I’ll be so quiet it’s like I’m not even here!”

“Too late for that,” Keith teases, and Lance looks ecstatic that he and Keith are on a somewhat easy rapport, and maybe, possibly, toeing the line to the rekindling of their friendship.

“Hey, uhm, Keith? Do you have anything else to eat…?”

Keith groans.

[brightisthedawn]

Thoughts on Voltron Season Two...

Had it's strong points, but overall, it was a lot weaker than the first season.

The first and most obvious problem was with pacing. It felt like it started out pretty scattered. Which, okay, yes! The Paladins are scattered! But the first four or five episodes feel pretty weak. The show starts to find its footing again around episode six.

And I think a major factor in this is the comparative lack of the Paladins interacting with each other. A lot of the investment in Voltron (for me, anyway) comes from seeing the Paladins interacting -- specifically, when they're either reinforcing each other, or when they have conflict where both sides are clearly sympathetic. The early episodes in particular don't have much Paladin bonding (which is fair enough when they aren't even together in the first two episodes), and we don't get as much of it later in the season as we did in the first season.

Which leads me to another point: Voltron works best when it takes all the characters seriously. A lot of people have mentioned how Lance and Hunk got Flanderized  into more comedic characters this season. That was probably done so they could focus on Keith and Shiro's arcs, but it actually weakens those arcs. Again, Voltron is better when it's taking itself seriously. If it doesn't take itself seriously, or dismisses some characters, that undermines the whole show and makes the serious moments seem weaker.

Most of the 'comic relief' moments come when most of the characters are together, and what harms the show the most is that they're so over-the-top. It would have worked better if those traits had been downplayed and Hunk and Lance had been written more seriously in the moments they had, and been given more chance to contribute. That would have strengthened the show by demonstrating that Voltron is actually a team of people who are genuinely trying their best, and who have each other's backs.

This doesn't mean there can't be humour! The mall episode was light-hearted and funny. The moment near the end of the twelfth episode, when everyone's thinking of Zarkon and Hunk's thinking of food -- that was funny. And it's the kind of thing I could see Hunk saying! Or it would have been funny, and not cringeworthy, if there hadn't been so much ham-fisted food-based comic relief earlier in the season.

It also didn't help that the comedic incompetence was extended to the villains. Early in the season, we have one Galra commander who's cartoonishly evil, but presented without gravity, and two who are...how to put it...dumb. Ridiculous. That right there cut a lot of the tension out of the show for me, because if we can't respect the villains, our heroes' struggle against them has no meaning.

(If I had to allow one comedic villain, it would be the mall cop. He fit with the tone of the episode. The short guy on the hoverdisc actively undermined the tension of the episode he was in. The guy who was building the cube superweapon could have used a bit more buildup.)

Another major problem was that the show didn't work as hard to connect us to the Paladins' allies this time around. Season one spent a significant amount of time making us care about the Arusians and the Balmerans, and gave the Paladins personal stakes with each group. By contrast, we don't get as much bonding with the mermaids, the tardigrades, or the metal-shapers. (The first two only appear in one episode each, so that's understandable, but it still lowers the stakes. The metalworkers show up again later on, though, and I really felt like more should have been done to show the Paladins connecting with them.) The Blades of Malmora...

Honestly, I felt there was quite a lot of tension between the Blades and the Paladins. Which is fair enough, and that kind of we're-working-together-because-we-have-to relationship can be well done. But it felt...odd. I wasn't sure if the tension was meant to be there or not.

An speaking of tension...

The inter-team tension, specifically the distance between Keith and Allura after Keith is revealed to have Galra blood, is exactly the kind of thing that makes team introspection necessary.

Because. If we have a lot of focus on the team, their amicable-and-otherwise relationships with each other, and a high amount of character focus, then the change in Allura's behaviour is sharpened by contrast. If we're focused in on who Keith and Allura are as people, if we're shown how they care about each other an the rest of the team -- even if the answer is 'they don't really pay much attention to each other' -- then we have a personal frame of reference for how this affects both of them.

But that comparative lack of introspection and character bonding means that the change in dynamic between them falls relatively flat. If character-based revelations are going to have impact, then the characters need to be built up first. There aren't as many personal team moments in this season, and there's a lot less delving into how Allura (among others) feels and why, so instead of more subtle characterisation, Allura gets hit with the 'irrational anger and prejudice' stick -- which, again, weakens the show by making her more dislikeable.

(Note -- I understand completely why Allura is so angry at the Galra; she has reason to be! But it's the kind of thing that needs to be discussed on-screen, not just inferred.)

Plot-wise, I also felt the pacing was a little clunky. There were some parts that were obviously intentional build-up, like the writers had laid out the points they needed to hit to reach the finale and were knocking them out without much grace. Some other parts felt repetitive or abrupt, or like the necessary legwork leading up to them had been rushed. The team took sudden unexplained jumps in skill.

...and it all ties back to character development, doesn't it? Because more character development would have helped those plot points rattle along a lot more smoothly. Plus, if the personal stakes were higher, the writers wouldn't have had to push the external stakes up to compensate (which I feel they did. The finale was great, but it felt too epic for the build-up it had.)

Anyway. Not as terrible as some people are saying, and the second half really is better than the first, but it's not as good as the first season.